Podcast Summary: B2B Agility™ Episode #25 – Customer-Led Growth with Elizabeth Zornes, Chief Customer Officer at Autodesk

Release Date: September 24, 2024

In Episode #25 of B2B Agility™, hosted by Greg Kihlström from The Agile Brand, listeners gain invaluable insights into driving customer-led growth within B2B organizations. This episode features Elizabeth Zornes, the Chief Customer Officer at Autodesk, who delves into strategies that foster customer success, enhance cross-departmental collaboration, and leverage technology to build exceptional customer experiences.

1. Introduction to Elizabeth Zornes and Her Role at Autodesk

Greg Kihlström opens the discussion by introducing Elizabeth Zornes, highlighting her extensive background in customer experience (CX) and her leadership roles at major tech companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Zendesk, and now Autodesk.

Elizabeth Zornes [01:12]: "Throughout my career, there was one ongoing theme I'm really passionate about, and that is the customer and leveraging technology and customer engagement to drive a better CX."

Elizabeth emphasizes her commitment to creating "irresistible customer experiences" and fostering a "customer-centric culture" within organizations.

2. Defining Customer Success at Autodesk

The conversation shifts to defining customer success and its significance at Autodesk.

Elizabeth Zornes [02:08]: "Customers don't just buy products, they buy outcomes and they buy experiences. When we remember this, we build those lasting, trusted partnerships."

Elizabeth explains that at Autodesk, customer success begins with understanding the customer's needs and desired outcomes. By leveraging advanced technologies, Autodesk aims to help its customers—comprising some of the most sophisticated designers and builders—achieve optimal results.

3. Strategies for Driving Customer-Led Growth

Elizabeth outlines the strategies and initiatives that guide customer success at Autodesk:

• Deep Listening: Implementing a robust "voice of the customer" practice that gathers data from various touchpoints, including engagements, surveys, social media, email, and chat interactions.

  Elizabeth Zornes [03:18]: "We have a whole practice that is focused on the voice of the customer... driving analytics from that."

• Collaborative Team Effort: Viewing customer experience (CX) as a team sport where marketing, customer success, sales, and other departments collaborate seamlessly to craft and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

  Elizabeth Zornes [04:21]: "It's really about crafting those experiences in a thoughtful way and then engaging the various teams."

4. Key Elements of an Irresistible Customer Experience

Elizabeth identifies several key elements essential for delivering an irresistible customer experience that drives growth:

• Personalization and Seamlessness: Tailoring experiences to meet customers where they are in their journey, providing relevant content and information.

• Empathy and Understanding: Demonstrating a deep understanding of customer needs and desired outcomes.

• Continuous Improvement: Embracing an agile approach to innovate and enhance customer interactions continuously.

  Elizabeth Zornes [04:55]: "Today's customers are so much more sophisticated, empowered, and informed... we need to build personalized and seamless experiences."

5. The Role of Data in Enhancing Customer Experiences

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the role of data in creating effective customer experiences.

Elizabeth Zornes [06:37]: "I often think of data as liquid gold... it only gets the real value once you coin it into currency."

Elizabeth explains the importance of not just collecting data but transforming it into actionable insights. She highlights two critical aspects:

• Customer Data: Understanding who the customers are, their usage patterns, and needs.
• Engagement Data: Analyzing how customers interact with products and services to derive both reactive and proactive insights.

6. Measuring Data Effectiveness and Storytelling

Elizabeth emphasizes the transition from data collection to storytelling:

Elizabeth Zornes [11:08]: "It goes from collection to analytics to insights to action."

She advocates for measuring the impact of data-driven actions by tracking customer interactions and the outcomes of implemented strategies. This approach ensures that data not only informs but also drives meaningful change.

7. Advanced Metrics: Customer Verified Value

Beyond traditional metrics like Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and customer satisfaction, Autodesk employs Customer Verified Value (CVV):

Elizabeth Zornes [11:46]: "We are calling it customer verified value... establishing goals jointly with our customers and tracking progress in QBRs."

CVV involves setting specific productivity or outcome goals with customers and measuring Autodesk's contribution toward these goals. This metric provides clear, customer-endorsed evidence of the value Autodesk delivers, facilitating easier renewal and expansion discussions.

8. Navigating Omnichannel Customer Experiences

Elizabeth discusses the challenges and importance of delivering a seamless omnichannel experience:

Elizabeth Zornes [14:45]: "We want to create the same experience, recognize the customer through different ways, and preserve that thread."

She differentiates between multi-channel and omnichannel strategies, emphasizing the need for a cohesive digital thread that ties all customer interactions together, ensuring consistency and recognition across various platforms and touchpoints.

9. Enhancing Cross-Team Collaboration

Using the analogy of a racing pit crew, Elizabeth illustrates the necessity of aligned goals and seamless teamwork in delivering superior customer experiences:

Elizabeth Zornes [16:47]: "We need the alignment of the goals, we need the practice, and we need to also celebrate the passion for the customer."

She underscores the importance of a unified data thread that enables different teams—sales, customer success, marketing—to share information and act cohesively in their interactions with customers.

10. Integrating Customer Experience into Every Employee’s Role

Elizabeth highlights strategies to ensure customer experience (CX) is ingrained in every employee's responsibilities:

• Direct Customer Feedback: Bringing customers into team meetings, testimonials, and other interactions to provide firsthand feedback.

• Mandatory Customer Interaction Training: Inspired by her time at Microsoft, where executives and product teams listen to customer calls to build empathy and understand customer challenges.

  Elizabeth Zornes [18:51]: "Listening into customer calls... really create the empathy and the connection to say what I do really matters."

11. Leveraging AI to Build Better Customer Relationships

The conversation transitions to the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing customer relationships:

Elizabeth Zornes [21:58]: "AI is to enhance human ingenuity, to empower more people to do better work... we are doing AI with them."

Autodesk's approach involves:

• Agile Experimentation: Hosting hackathons to generate AI-driven ideas for improving productivity and customer outcomes.
• Collaborative AI Integration: Involving teams in the AI development process to foster innovation and ensure AI solutions meet real customer needs.
• Practical Applications: Implementing AI in chat functions, language translation, providing insights for customer success managers, and optimizing customer projects.

Elizabeth shares that these initiatives have created a positive dynamic within the organization, driving continuous experimentation and innovation.

12. Future Trends and Preparing for Growing Customer Expectations

Looking ahead, Elizabeth identifies major trends influencing customer experience and growth:

Elizabeth Zornes [26:08]: "Customer expectations grow exponentially... allows us to continuously innovate with new technologies and AI."

Autodesk prepares to adapt by embracing new technologies, fostering a culture of continuous innovation, and maintaining a strong focus on customer collaboration and value creation.

Conclusion

Greg Kihlström wraps up the episode by thanking Elizabeth Zornes for her insightful contributions. Listeners are encouraged to learn more about Elizabeth and Autodesk through the show's resources and to subscribe for future episodes of B2B Agility™.

Notable Quotes:

• Elizabeth Zornes [02:08]: "Customers don't just buy products, they buy outcomes and they buy experiences."
• Elizabeth Zornes [06:37]: "Data as liquid gold... it only gets the real value once you coin it into currency."
• Elizabeth Zornes [11:46]: "Customer verified value... establishing goals jointly with our customers."
• Elizabeth Zornes [16:47]: "We need the alignment of the goals, we need the practice, and we need to also celebrate the passion for the customer."
• Elizabeth Zornes [21:58]: "AI is to enhance human ingenuity, to empower more people to do better work."
• Elizabeth Zornes [26:08]: "Customer expectations grow exponentially... allows us to continuously innovate with new technologies and AI."

For more insights and episodes from B2B Agility™, visit www.b2bagility.com and explore Greg Kihlström’s range of best-selling agile brand guides available on Amazon.